The present relates to digital telecommunication systems generally and to synchronization of such telecommunication systems in particular.
Mobile radio involves communication between mobile units and a base station via transmission of radio signals. One method of communication is known as Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) in which a period of time is divided into multiple timeslots, each of which is assigned to a different communicating unit. In order for a receiving unit to decode the signals intended for it, the receiving unit must synchronize to the timeslot assigned to it. Therefore, each message sent to a receiving unit has a synchronization signal included therein. Once the receiving unit is synchronized to the sending unit, the receiving unit can decode the symbols being sent.
Unfortunately, the transmitted signal may be reflected off obstructions (such as trees, buildings, etc.) which are in the path between the sending and receiving units. The obstructions cause a portion or portions of the transmitted signal to arrive at the receiving unit after the main portion is received. This is known as multipath propagation and must be compensated within the receiving unit. If the mobile station is moving, the signal it receives can also be subject to fading.
Furthermore, the local oscillators which provide the timing and frequency basis in the mobile and base stations often drift apart. Of particular concern is that of frequency drift, or offset. The frequency offset increases the error probability in the receiving unit. In addition, it is typically desired that the mobile station lock onto the received frequency for transmission purposes, to enable the base station to decode the transmission of the mobile units without having to perform frequency acquisition.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,740 to Toy et al. describes a synchronization method which estimates the synchronization timing but has no correction for frequency offsets.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,498 to Toy et al. describes one synchronization system and method which initially estimates the timing of the synchronization words after which it estimates the frequency drift. The frequency offset is then corrected at the frequency of the local oscillator.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel synchronization method for digital telecommunication systems which performs combined frame timing, symbol timing and frequency offset acquisition.
There is provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method and unit for performing initial frame and symbol time acquisition for multipath channels with large frequency offsets and, if desired, with fading. A coarse time acquisition is initially performed using a metric that is insensitive to frequency offsets, after which a more accurate frame and symbol acquisition, along with hypothesis testing over a range of possible frequency offsets, is performed to achieve a final estimate of the timing and the frequency offset.
More specifically, there is provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a frequency offset synchronizer which includes an initial timing estimator and a combined frequency offset and refined timing estimator. The initial timing estimator determines a rough timing value from input data samples and a reference synchronization word. The combined frequency offset and refined timing estimator operates in the close vicinity of the rough timing estimate and determines the frequency offset and synchronization timing from the input data samples and the reference synchronization word.
Additionally, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the initial timing estimator includes a unit for performing a normalized differential correlation between the input data samples, shifted by a varying amount xcfx84, and the reference synchronization word and a selector for selecting the value of xcfx84 which provides the best correlation to be the rough timing estimate.
The combined frequency offset and refined timing estimator includes a log likelihood metric unit for determining a log likelihood metric between time and frequency shifted versions of the input data samples and the reference synchronization word and a selector for selecting the value of a time shift and a frequency offset which produce a minimum value of the log likelihood metric.
Moreover, the log likelihood metric means operates a multiplicity of times on different frames of data. It can include a frequency offset loop and a timing loop within the frequency offset loop. The frequency offset loop can be performed a multiplicity of times, each time reducing the range of frequencies of the loop but increasing the resolution.
The present invention incorporates the methods performed by the frequency offset synchronizer of the present invention and any digital communication system incorporating the method or synchronizer of the present invention.